they are both good. chances are since both are f2p then you will eventually try both. everyone knows ESO's rough launch. i was a subscriber for a few months. the grouping issue is why i stopped since i play with my wife. i personally do not care for GW2, but i will say its a good game. its just not for me. on 3/17 ESO goes f2p so i will be playing it again to see how far its come.
This is my opinion so you forum warriors can sheath your swords but I find the ESO world more immersive and the quest dialogue including the voices are well done and adds to this immersion. Razum-dar is a fine example. The fights even normal ones can turn hairy as you pull too many and you are fighting for your life. You die a lot too in ESO I hardly ever died in GW 2. Perhaps that is because I'm a poor player but 4 mobs can kill me.
GW 2 was very easy and the champion fights were just a mass of aoes going off. Not that I have anything against GW 2 but it is an easier game. The story also was very poor quality in my opinion compared to the better dialogue and voices in ESO. Some actually made me laugh out loud. Lot of humour and references that are fun to discover. The lore is really fun and reading them is a treat the books you find. Real gems in there. I found GW 2 a far more empty world when I played and I rarely saw another player except in certain zones. ESO seems more busy may be because of the mega server thing.
The dungeons in ESO are fun because you have roles and people have to pay attention and avoid AOE. I did not enjoy standing in one corner wall in GW 2 dungeon no idea if that is still going on this was months ago. It was not much fun in dungeons and although I have played other games with no holy trinity but they had roles in them like City of Villains. I enjoy games where people have some roles and they do not overlap. ESO has them and still it is not dependent on the tank or healer so much but more that the others pay attention too and avoid crap.
The puzzle jumping was fun in GW 2 and I enjoyed the art style a lot and I also enjoyed soloing in GW 2 with my pet.
The world in both games are beautiful in different ways and I enjoyed my time in GW 2 but if I had to choose I would choose ESO.
As others have pointed out you can try them both since they are both B2P.
they are both good. chances are since both are f2p then you will eventually try both. everyone knows ESO's rough launch. i was a subscriber for a few months. the grouping issue is why i stopped since i play with my wife. i personally do not care for GW2, but i will say its a good game. its just not for me. on 3/17 ESO goes f2p so i will be playing it again to see how far its come.
I thought both GW2 and TESO were buy to play, and TESO going buy to play in 3/17 not free to play.
Just buy both of them, both are B2P (ESO being in couple weeks) and you will never feel the "need" to play because of paying monthly so you can enjoy either one of them when you feel the urge to.
I'd say GW2, but I'm extremely biased. I feel it has more character, in everything from it's art style (which is present in every aspect including the UI) to the combat and main story characters. The characters that ride the tides of fate, Destiny's Edge, the NPC guild are all very well thought out and fleshed out, they've got character arcs and personality. That's cause the story in the game involves such vast world changing forces they don't want the player character to be the hero of the day, sorta like older games that had "heroes" and "mascots". It goes to prevent the whole "The Hero of Kvatch was a nord/human/redguard/argonian/khajiit/male/female and they stopped the tragedy." That arises in games with a single player messiah, and prevents problems with people knowing you in game and all that. Basically it's supposed to create immersion. And that was the biggest complaint I heard about it, you're not "THE ONE".
TESO is about the opposite, you are THE ONE, and so is every other player character. There are 10000000 THE ONE(s) and you're a super special snowflake. The game lacks most character or qualities of an Elder Scrolls game, and is incredibly linear and disapproves of exploration and making fun your own way. It's very anti-adventure and anti-Elder Scrolls. It lacks a LFG tool, it also lacks an auction house, and it's so heavily instanced/phased that grouping is almost impossible. The overall art style is bland, and the graphics are stomach-able, but I feel they lack character. If the game didn't have TES attached in the title I wouldn't be able to tell it apart from Generic Fantasy X.
--Custom Rig: Pyraxis--- NZXT Phantom 410 Case Intel Core i5-4690 Processor - Quad Core, 6MB Smart Cache, 3.5GHz Asus Sabertooth Z87 Motherboard Asus GeForce GTX 760 Video Card - 2GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 3.0 Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 16GB
ESO is in gritty world with gritty lore. You can make an ugly old woman with a wicked voice. Any roll you can conceive you can create with trial and error. The combat system gives you control of your basic attacks in an analog fashion. The longer you left click the harder the blow. There's active blocking. There is active blocking, you know like real combat. I said it twice because it adds so much to mmorpg combat, something that has been missing for years. All npcs in the world are unique. It's all voice acted. The Alliance War is a war. It's not pvdoor where people avoid battle to gain xp.
The bad - Server tech. During battle of 200 people in one spot the severs lag.
If you still need help deciding, look at a video of each side by side. It should be pretty obvious after that.
ok ok. good lord i forgot where i was writing. yes i said f2p. i know they are actually b2p. but i consider games as either p2p (subs) or f2p (no subs). i think every game should have to be purchased. nothing should ever be completely free.
anyways, i do agree that ESO is more immersive. it does have a better feel to it. GW2 just seemed a little shallow to me. couldnt find a reason to log in. but these are just my opinion. others love GW2. just buy em both.
I'd say GW2, but I'm extremely biased. I feel it has more character, in everything from it's art style (which is present in every aspect including the UI) to the combat and main story characters. The characters that ride the tides of fate, Destiny's Edge, the NPC guild are all very well thought out and fleshed out, they've got character arcs and personality. That's cause the story in the game involves such vast world changing forces they don't want the player character to be the hero of the day, sorta like older games that had "heroes" and "mascots". It goes to prevent the whole "The Hero of Kvatch was a nord/human/redguard/argonian/khajiit/male/female and they stopped the tragedy." That arises in games with a single player messiah, and prevents problems with people knowing you in game and all that. Basically it's supposed to create immersion. And that was the biggest complaint I heard about it, you're not "THE ONE".
TESO is about the opposite, you are THE ONE, and so is every other player character. There are 10000000 THE ONE(s) and you're a super special snowflake. The game lacks most character or qualities of an Elder Scrolls game, and is incredibly linear and disapproves of exploration and making fun your own way. It's very anti-adventure and anti-Elder Scrolls. It lacks a LFG tool, it also lacks an auction house, and it's so heavily instanced/phased that grouping is almost impossible. The overall art style is bland, and the graphics are stomach-able, but I feel they lack character. If the game didn't have TES attached in the title I wouldn't be able to tell it apart from Generic Fantasy X.
Pretty convincing case, im pretty torn on which to buy still because I guess im not sure what I want from a themepark game. My experience is mostly from sandbox only games uo/swg/eve types. I think i'll try out GW2 first see if i like it or not. Are there any trial periods?
Forgot to add with the patch yesterday they made ESO such if you steal from or murder NPCs you will have a bounty put on you and you also cannot kill the NPC's livestock. It adds further immersion in the game. You can also pickpocket NPC's ,well you can try.
Something that bcbully said that I wish to expand on about blocking , interrupting and general combat. You really have to pay attention even in normal fights that can go bad. You will do well when you block and interrupt and this makes the combat so much more engaging and certain fights are nigh impossible if you do not fight well and that makes me as a player proud when I manage it. I often find myself exhilarated when I finish and I understand that GW 2 PvP is somewhat similar so you might enjoy that similar feeling of accomplishment . The PvP in GW 2 is very good.
I'd say GW2, but I'm extremely biased. I feel it has more character, in everything from it's art style (which is present in every aspect including the UI) to the combat and main story characters. The characters that ride the tides of fate, Destiny's Edge, the NPC guild are all very well thought out and fleshed out, they've got character arcs and personality. That's cause the story in the game involves such vast world changing forces they don't want the player character to be the hero of the day, sorta like older games that had "heroes" and "mascots". It goes to prevent the whole "The Hero of Kvatch was a nord/human/redguard/argonian/khajiit/male/female and they stopped the tragedy." That arises in games with a single player messiah, and prevents problems with people knowing you in game and all that. Basically it's supposed to create immersion. And that was the biggest complaint I heard about it, you're not "THE ONE".
TESO is about the opposite, you are THE ONE, and so is every other player character. There are 10000000 THE ONE(s) and you're a super special snowflake. The game lacks most character or qualities of an Elder Scrolls game, and is incredibly linear and disapproves of exploration and making fun your own way. It's very anti-adventure and anti-Elder Scrolls. It lacks a LFG tool, it also lacks an auction house, and it's so heavily instanced/phased that grouping is almost impossible. The overall art style is bland, and the graphics are stomach-able, but I feel they lack character. If the game didn't have TES attached in the title I wouldn't be able to tell it apart from Generic Fantasy X.
Pretty convincing case, im pretty torn on which to buy still because I guess im not sure what I want from a themepark game. My experience is mostly from sandbox only games uo/swg/eve types. I think i'll try out GW2 first see if i like it or not. Are there any trial periods?
If you enjoy EVE and sandboxes man... You wont play GW2 for more than 3 weeks. It's anti thought imo....
ESO has a lfg too. It has guild traders in city's. Think space stations. If ESO is "heavily instanced" I haven't noticed....
Its not even close for me.. ESO is the much better MMORPG in every way possible...
Now i would take the time to write a long list but its really not neccassary for me... as literally ESO is better in every single way you can think an MMO could be
Yes, both are B2P. ESO already is if one still hasn't bought the game (you get on month of game time free on purchase).
ESO is more about quests and immersion, while GW2 is more about beautiful zones, dynamic events and faster paced combat.
Pretty much my opinion.
I play ESO for quest lines and amazing voice acting/dialogue (I never skip them and love the "elder scrolls" lore in general) while in GW2 I play for fast-paced and balanced PvP and cool zone exploration.
GW2's world feels more alive, less linear with the dynamic events and non "phased" world. And with "downlevelling" you will probably be pleased to explore the various zones regardless of your level. It's a pleasant ride to the 100% completion with jumping puzzles and all.
TSW as an alternative to those games is also B2P and I've heard the quest lines are also great there so I will check this one out after I'm done with ESO.
I'd say GW2, but I'm extremely biased. I feel it has more character, in everything from it's art style (which is present in every aspect including the UI) to the combat and main story characters. The characters that ride the tides of fate, Destiny's Edge, the NPC guild are all very well thought out and fleshed out, they've got character arcs and personality. That's cause the story in the game involves such vast world changing forces they don't want the player character to be the hero of the day, sorta like older games that had "heroes" and "mascots". It goes to prevent the whole "The Hero of Kvatch was a nord/human/redguard/argonian/khajiit/male/female and they stopped the tragedy." That arises in games with a single player messiah, and prevents problems with people knowing you in game and all that. Basically it's supposed to create immersion. And that was the biggest complaint I heard about it, you're not "THE ONE".
TESO is about the opposite, you are THE ONE, and so is every other player character. There are 10000000 THE ONE(s) and you're a super special snowflake. The game lacks most character or qualities of an Elder Scrolls game, and is incredibly linear and disapproves of exploration and making fun your own way. It's very anti-adventure and anti-Elder Scrolls. It lacks a LFG tool, it also lacks an auction house, and it's so heavily instanced/phased that grouping is almost impossible. The overall art style is bland, and the graphics are stomach-able, but I feel they lack character. If the game didn't have TES attached in the title I wouldn't be able to tell it apart from Generic Fantasy X.
Pretty convincing case, im pretty torn on which to buy still because I guess im not sure what I want from a themepark game. My experience is mostly from sandbox only games uo/swg/eve types. I think i'll try out GW2 first see if i like it or not. Are there any trial periods?
If you enjoy EVE and sandboxes man... You wont play GW2 for more than 3 weeks. It's anti thought imo....
ESO has a lfg too. It has guild traders in city's. Think space stations. If ESO is "heavily instanced" I haven't noticed....
Thats beside the question, with linearity and much less freedom ESO is even worse in that aspect heh
If you enjoy EVE and sandboxes man... You wont play GW2 for more than 3 weeks. It's anti thought imo....
ESO has a lfg too. It has guild traders in city's. Think space stations. If ESO is "heavily instanced" I haven't noticed....
ESO's LFG tool is a player search, it's much less a LFG tool. It's why everyone screams about LFG in chat, because the tool is unintuitive and nobody uses it. It's like EQ2's launch LFG Tool, you basically search other players that are LFG.
The guild traders aren' t the same as an AH, they're.... adequate but not the same.
The heavy instancing comes with questing, the questing phases certain NPCs in and out and if you try to play with a few friensd it's incredibly frustrating and almost impossible. You also don't get group stacking objectives or quest pickups.
--Custom Rig: Pyraxis--- NZXT Phantom 410 Case Intel Core i5-4690 Processor - Quad Core, 6MB Smart Cache, 3.5GHz Asus Sabertooth Z87 Motherboard Asus GeForce GTX 760 Video Card - 2GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 3.0 Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 16GB
Pretty convincing case, im pretty torn on which to buy still because I guess im not sure what I want from a themepark game. My experience is mostly from sandbox only games uo/swg/eve types. I think i'll try out GW2 first see if i like it or not. Are there any trial periods?
If you enjoy EVE and sandboxes man... You wont play GW2 for more than 3 weeks. It's anti thought imo....
ESO has a lfg too. It has guild traders in city's. Think space stations. If ESO is "heavily instanced" I haven't noticed....
Unfair comment. Particularly if you pretend ESO is the solution to that "anti thought/sandbox" problem. ESO is more linear than GW2, but none of these two games are sandboxes that's for sure.
I'd say these days: watch a let's play video for 30 min of each game, and see for yourself if you would like to try it. The games have been released, so there is nothing to hide any more.
I've played a lot of GW2 - never really got into the sPvP or WvW too much, but got a toon to 80 and spent a good chunk of time working on world completion and story completion and getting exotics for every slot etc.
I missed dungeons. Yes, I know GW2 has dungeons - but I could never get into them. I like the structure of the trinity (tank/heal/dps) too much.
GW2 is a beautiful world - the human capital Divinity's Reach is still my favorite city in any MMO ever.
GW2 just got so stale for me. I looked at my world completion and stopped caring about hunting down those POIs, Vistas, and Hearts.
I really disliked the event-chain farming, world bosses on timers, etc. just way too obvious farming.
The combat got pretty boring for me too. Really felt like there were 1-2 viable builds for traits and weapon setups, and without any structure in group play it was just "stay at range and spam AoE" which also got really boring.
The content they added over time really didn't do much for me. It was either way too short or just poorly implemented.
It was definitely worth the $60 purchase price, as I had many months and likely hundreds of hours of good fun out of it - but just not worth continual play for me.
I'm sure I will eventually hit the same point with ESO - but I'm excited to play a AAA MMO on my XB1, I love the ES world, I'm a completionist at heart so I like the idea of the veteran ranks and playing the other factions PvE content at end game.
I really dig the first person combat, active blocking/attacking, and idea that each class can really take on any role. I like the public/private dungeons, as well as group dungeons requiring the trinity structure.
I didn't give ESO much of a chance in the beta, never got out of the starting area, but the games had a year+ of updates and patches and new content, and from what everyone is saying the new 1.6 feels more like ESO 2.0 and with the B2P model and console launch...
I'm sure I'll get my $60 worth out of it. Then we'll see if they can keep me around with DLC.
It's hard to compare these two games since they are so different.
Besides from obvious differences which can be seen by comparing art design and game features, I'd say that GW2 is more streamlined, more polished experience. But, it's not necessary a good thing since it can give your typical MMO vet a "been there done that" feeling.
ESO, on the other hand is a bit rougher around the edges, more sandboxy and not so hand-holding, which can be good or bad, depending on someone's preference.
I prefer GW2 because of the many play style: PVE, WvW and structured PvP. I also like the many armors and the transmute system. All you need you can get by playing, all you want you can get with gems. Gems you for in-game gold or real money.
It is in no way Pay2Win, at most it is Pay2Look-good.
To me ESO felt too much like it was made or prepared for console. Still remember it felt silly to first open a container with the E button and next get the item in there with the R button. The combat also felt a little stiff and you was not able to see the skills that would be available later.
Comments
they are both good. chances are since both are f2p then you will eventually try both. everyone knows ESO's rough launch. i was a subscriber for a few months. the grouping issue is why i stopped since i play with my wife.
i personally do not care for GW2, but i will say its a good game. its just not for me. on 3/17 ESO goes f2p so i will be playing it again to see how far its come.
This is my opinion so you forum warriors can sheath your swords but I find the ESO world more immersive and the quest dialogue including the voices are well done and adds to this immersion. Razum-dar is a fine example. The fights even normal ones can turn hairy as you pull too many and you are fighting for your life. You die a lot too in ESO I hardly ever died in GW 2. Perhaps that is because I'm a poor player but 4 mobs can kill me.
GW 2 was very easy and the champion fights were just a mass of aoes going off. Not that I have anything against GW 2 but it is an easier game. The story also was very poor quality in my opinion compared to the better dialogue and voices in ESO. Some actually made me laugh out loud. Lot of humour and references that are fun to discover. The lore is really fun and reading them is a treat the books you find. Real gems in there. I found GW 2 a far more empty world when I played and I rarely saw another player except in certain zones. ESO seems more busy may be because of the mega server thing.
The dungeons in ESO are fun because you have roles and people have to pay attention and avoid AOE. I did not enjoy standing in one corner wall in GW 2 dungeon no idea if that is still going on this was months ago. It was not much fun in dungeons and although I have played other games with no holy trinity but they had roles in them like City of Villains. I enjoy games where people have some roles and they do not overlap. ESO has them and still it is not dependent on the tank or healer so much but more that the others pay attention too and avoid crap.
The puzzle jumping was fun in GW 2 and I enjoyed the art style a lot and I also enjoyed soloing in GW 2 with my pet.
The world in both games are beautiful in different ways and I enjoyed my time in GW 2 but if I had to choose I would choose ESO.
As others have pointed out you can try them both since they are both B2P.
I thought both GW2 and TESO were buy to play, and TESO going buy to play in 3/17 not free to play.
ESO on 17/3 and play till GW2 expansion then switch to GW2.
Both are good, but GW2 has much more longeviety.
Yes, both are B2P. ESO already is if one still hasn't bought the game (you get on month of game time free on purchase).
ESO is more about quests and immersion, while GW2 is more about beautiful zones, dynamic events and faster paced combat.
I'd say GW2, but I'm extremely biased. I feel it has more character, in everything from it's art style (which is present in every aspect including the UI) to the combat and main story characters. The characters that ride the tides of fate, Destiny's Edge, the NPC guild are all very well thought out and fleshed out, they've got character arcs and personality. That's cause the story in the game involves such vast world changing forces they don't want the player character to be the hero of the day, sorta like older games that had "heroes" and "mascots". It goes to prevent the whole "The Hero of Kvatch was a nord/human/redguard/argonian/khajiit/male/female and they stopped the tragedy." That arises in games with a single player messiah, and prevents problems with people knowing you in game and all that. Basically it's supposed to create immersion. And that was the biggest complaint I heard about it, you're not "THE ONE".
TESO is about the opposite, you are THE ONE, and so is every other player character. There are 10000000 THE ONE(s) and you're a super special snowflake. The game lacks most character or qualities of an Elder Scrolls game, and is incredibly linear and disapproves of exploration and making fun your own way. It's very anti-adventure and anti-Elder Scrolls. It lacks a LFG tool, it also lacks an auction house, and it's so heavily instanced/phased that grouping is almost impossible. The overall art style is bland, and the graphics are stomach-able, but I feel they lack character. If the game didn't have TES attached in the title I wouldn't be able to tell it apart from Generic Fantasy X.
--Custom Rig: Pyraxis---
NZXT Phantom 410 Case
Intel Core i5-4690 Processor - Quad Core, 6MB Smart Cache, 3.5GHz
Asus Sabertooth Z87 Motherboard
Asus GeForce GTX 760 Video Card - 2GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 3.0
Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 16GB
hook line and sinker....
The good -
ESO is in gritty world with gritty lore. You can make an ugly old woman with a wicked voice. Any roll you can conceive you can create with trial and error. The combat system gives you control of your basic attacks in an analog fashion. The longer you left click the harder the blow. There's active blocking. There is active blocking, you know like real combat. I said it twice because it adds so much to mmorpg combat, something that has been missing for years. All npcs in the world are unique. It's all voice acted. The Alliance War is a war. It's not pvdoor where people avoid battle to gain xp.
The bad - Server tech. During battle of 200 people in one spot the severs lag.
If you still need help deciding, look at a video of each side by side. It should be pretty obvious after that.
ok ok. good lord i forgot where i was writing. yes i said f2p. i know they are actually b2p. but i consider games as either p2p (subs) or f2p (no subs). i think every game should have to be purchased. nothing should ever be completely free.
anyways, i do agree that ESO is more immersive. it does have a better feel to it. GW2 just seemed a little shallow to me. couldnt find a reason to log in. but these are just my opinion. others love GW2. just buy em both.
Pretty convincing case, im pretty torn on which to buy still because I guess im not sure what I want from a themepark game. My experience is mostly from sandbox only games uo/swg/eve types. I think i'll try out GW2 first see if i like it or not. Are there any trial periods?
well if you want to try one of the games right now then it has to be GW2. ESO wont go free till the 17th.
Forgot to add with the patch yesterday they made ESO such if you steal from or murder NPCs you will have a bounty put on you and you also cannot kill the NPC's livestock. It adds further immersion in the game. You can also pickpocket NPC's ,well you can try.
Something that bcbully said that I wish to expand on about blocking , interrupting and general combat. You really have to pay attention even in normal fights that can go bad. You will do well when you block and interrupt and this makes the combat so much more engaging and certain fights are nigh impossible if you do not fight well and that makes me as a player proud when I manage it. I often find myself exhilarated when I finish and I understand that GW 2 PvP is somewhat similar so you might enjoy that similar feeling of accomplishment . The PvP in GW 2 is very good.
If you enjoy EVE and sandboxes man... You wont play GW2 for more than 3 weeks. It's anti thought imo....
ESO has a lfg too. It has guild traders in city's. Think space stations. If ESO is "heavily instanced" I haven't noticed....
Its not even close for me.. ESO is the much better MMORPG in every way possible...
Now i would take the time to write a long list but its really not neccassary for me... as literally ESO is better in every single way you can think an MMO could be
Pretty much my opinion.
I play ESO for quest lines and amazing voice acting/dialogue (I never skip them and love the "elder scrolls" lore in general) while in GW2 I play for fast-paced and balanced PvP and cool zone exploration.
GW2's world feels more alive, less linear with the dynamic events and non "phased" world. And with "downlevelling" you will probably be pleased to explore the various zones regardless of your level. It's a pleasant ride to the 100% completion with jumping puzzles and all.
TSW as an alternative to those games is also B2P and I've heard the quest lines are also great there so I will check this one out after I'm done with ESO.
Thats beside the question, with linearity and much less freedom ESO is even worse in that aspect heh
ESO's LFG tool is a player search, it's much less a LFG tool. It's why everyone screams about LFG in chat, because the tool is unintuitive and nobody uses it. It's like EQ2's launch LFG Tool, you basically search other players that are LFG.
The guild traders aren' t the same as an AH, they're.... adequate but not the same.
The heavy instancing comes with questing, the questing phases certain NPCs in and out and if you try to play with a few friensd it's incredibly frustrating and almost impossible. You also don't get group stacking objectives or quest pickups.
--Custom Rig: Pyraxis---
NZXT Phantom 410 Case
Intel Core i5-4690 Processor - Quad Core, 6MB Smart Cache, 3.5GHz
Asus Sabertooth Z87 Motherboard
Asus GeForce GTX 760 Video Card - 2GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 3.0
Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 16GB
Unfair comment. Particularly if you pretend ESO is the solution to that "anti thought/sandbox" problem. ESO is more linear than GW2, but none of these two games are sandboxes that's for sure.
I'd say these days: watch a let's play video for 30 min of each game, and see for yourself if you would like to try it. The games have been released, so there is nothing to hide any more.
ESO would be my choice.
I've played a lot of GW2 - never really got into the sPvP or WvW too much, but got a toon to 80 and spent a good chunk of time working on world completion and story completion and getting exotics for every slot etc.
I missed dungeons. Yes, I know GW2 has dungeons - but I could never get into them. I like the structure of the trinity (tank/heal/dps) too much.
GW2 is a beautiful world - the human capital Divinity's Reach is still my favorite city in any MMO ever.
GW2 just got so stale for me. I looked at my world completion and stopped caring about hunting down those POIs, Vistas, and Hearts.
I really disliked the event-chain farming, world bosses on timers, etc. just way too obvious farming.
The combat got pretty boring for me too. Really felt like there were 1-2 viable builds for traits and weapon setups, and without any structure in group play it was just "stay at range and spam AoE" which also got really boring.
The content they added over time really didn't do much for me. It was either way too short or just poorly implemented.
It was definitely worth the $60 purchase price, as I had many months and likely hundreds of hours of good fun out of it - but just not worth continual play for me.
I'm sure I will eventually hit the same point with ESO - but I'm excited to play a AAA MMO on my XB1, I love the ES world, I'm a completionist at heart so I like the idea of the veteran ranks and playing the other factions PvE content at end game.
I really dig the first person combat, active blocking/attacking, and idea that each class can really take on any role. I like the public/private dungeons, as well as group dungeons requiring the trinity structure.
I didn't give ESO much of a chance in the beta, never got out of the starting area, but the games had a year+ of updates and patches and new content, and from what everyone is saying the new 1.6 feels more like ESO 2.0 and with the B2P model and console launch...
I'm sure I'll get my $60 worth out of it. Then we'll see if they can keep me around with DLC.
It's hard to compare these two games since they are so different.
Besides from obvious differences which can be seen by comparing art design and game features, I'd say that GW2 is more streamlined, more polished experience. But, it's not necessary a good thing since it can give your typical MMO vet a "been there done that" feeling.
ESO, on the other hand is a bit rougher around the edges, more sandboxy and not so hand-holding, which can be good or bad, depending on someone's preference.
There will be a 75% off offer for GW2 digital editions from March 6th until March 8/9th. The game for 10$ or 10€ is a good deal.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/pax-east-is-coming/
I prefer GW2 because of the many play style: PVE, WvW and structured PvP. I also like the many armors and the transmute system. All you need you can get by playing, all you want you can get with gems. Gems you for in-game gold or real money.
It is in no way Pay2Win, at most it is Pay2Look-good.
To me ESO felt too much like it was made or prepared for console. Still remember it felt silly to first open a container with the E button and next get the item in there with the R button. The combat also felt a little stiff and you was not able to see the skills that would be available later.
If you consider buying GW2 then it is best to do in 6-8 march as it 75% off in that period: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/pax-east-is-coming/